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The new pope isn't the only right-of-center figure to take a walk on the left side

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Library Of Congress/Getty Images

In 1952, after 20 years out of the office, conservative Republicans were licking their chops at the chance to get back in power and start hacking away at the New Deal. Instead they got Ike, a rigorously opaque politician who tended towards a moderation that infuriated the party's right wing (Barry Goldwater called his administration "a dime store New Deal"). He sent federal troops to integrate Little Rock Central High School, warned against the evils of the military-industrial complex and expanded Social Security. After the head of the John Birch Society claimed that Ike was a secret communist agent, writer Russell Kirk responded, "He's no communist. He's a golfer."